Gen. PHALtENA. Fam. BOMBYX. 

 Bombyx Exposita. PL 7- 



Bombyx with reddish brown wings; the anterior having a band something darker, bounded on 

 either side by an irregular line of black edged with white; a similar line toward the extremity 

 forming a second band, lighter in colour, and a white spot in the middle of each; the poste- 

 rior wings plain brown. The female is more dusky than the male; the antennae pectinated 

 to the extremity in the male. 



The caterpillar or larva of this little Bombyx is found feeding on the clus- 

 tering leaves at the extremity of the shoots groAving on the top of the casua- 

 rina, or she oak of the colonists. When not feeding it retires to the stem of 

 the shoot, where it is somewhat concealed from the resemblance of it's wavy 

 sides and ridgy back to the bark of those shoots; and when it advances to 

 feed, it is always to the end of the most extreme leaf, which it devours to the 

 base, and then attacks another in the same way, exposed to the agitation of 

 the lightest breath of wind. Yet in such an exposed situation it goes through 

 all it's changes, and at last spins a close cone or case of a yellowish colour, 

 almost at the extremity of one of those narrow leaves, securing it by extended 

 threads carried out from either end of it's cone, aided by a line or two fastened 

 to an adjoining leaf. This it does generally in the beginning of February, 

 remains twenty-two days in the pupa state, and is on the wing in the same 

 month. The male has a much larger abdomen than the female, with short 

 dapper wings, while those of the female are more extended and much darker, 

 as shown at 4: the male is figured at 3; the larva, as it feeds, at 1; and the 

 pupa in it's cone, in the exposed manner before mentioned, at 2. This 

 Bombyx inhabits she oaks growing in m&st places, about the heads of which 

 the moth plays on the wing. 



Obs. We have named this Bombyx from the exposed manner of it's life in the pupa and 



larva state. 



